Catholic Health East has named Nora Triola, RN, the system's executive vice president/CNO. Triola currently holds the position of senior vice president/CNO at Holy Cross Hospital in Ft. Lauderdale, and Mercy Hospital in Miami, both members of the Catholic Health East system.
WellCare Health Plans, Inc. has promoted Michael L. Cotton to the newly created position of president, national health plans. Cotton will lead all of the company's health plan market operations. Cotton previously was president of WellCare's south division, leading the company's Georgia, Texas, and Louisiana markets.
SSM Health Care-St. Louis has appointed Karen Rewerts as the healthcare provider network's vice president of finance/CFO. Rewerts has been with SSM Health Care for 18 years, starting as director of financial planning at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center, and serving most recently as SSM Health Care-St. Louis' vice president/planning and decision support.
Carolinas HealthCare System has announced several executive team changes. Phyllis Wingate-Jones, president of Carolinas Medical Center-Mercy, has been promoted to division president of Carolinas Medical Center-NorthEast in Concord. Spencer Lilly, president of Carolinas Medical Center-University, will move to CMC-Mercy as president. Martha Whitecotton, administrator of Levine Children's Hospital, has been named president. Laura Thomas has been named president of CMC-Randolph, the CHS Behavioral Health center in Charlotte. Curtis Copenhaver, who has been serving as interim president of CMC-NorthEast, has agreed to serve as interim president of CMC-University while a replacement is found for Lilly. CHS also announced Brent Lambert, MD, has been named vice president and chief medical information officer.
Washington, DC, is abandoning efforts in DC Superior Court to take over United Medical Center because there are ways less costly than a court-ordered receivership to gain control of the Southeast Washington hospital, Attorney General Peter Nickles said. Nickles said he saw "lawyers coming out of the woodwork" and did not want to put a financial burden on the city, which contended in a court filing last week that the medical center has been badly managed by Specialty Hospitals of America, the hospital's private, for-profit operator. The District can take other routes to seize the hospital and put new management in place, Nickles said.
Those who run the Women's Services department at Miami-based Jackson South Community Hospital are getting lots of calls from patients to cancel appointments. "They think we're closing the hospital," said registered nurse practitioner Dora Escobedo at a recent meeting of the Public Health Trust subcommittee formed to guide the hospital's future in the wake of Jackson Health System's financial crisis. Several of the hospital's top doctors attended the session to discuss ways Jackson South can promote itself better and let potential patients know the facility will not be closing after all, the Miami Herald reports.